In response to Senator Bernie Sanders’ outspoken support for Verizon employees in their strike against the communications corporation, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdams has penned a condemning hit piece on the senator which he published on LinkedIn on Wednesday afternoon.
In the piece, McAdam takes issue with several claims that the Senator has made, namely that Verizon isn’t paying their fair share of taxes, is not contributing to the country that has given Verizon its success, and is not treating its workers adequately.
McAdam claims that most of the arguments made by Senator Sanders are factually incorrect. All this despite the fact that there are currently massive strikes and walk-outs in Verizon stores all across the east coast.
Senator Sanders gained a great deal of attention on Wednesday morning when he attended one such strike outside of a Verizon wireless location in Brooklyn, New York. Sanders gave a rousing speech against corporate power and urged those striking to continue to fight – not just for themselves but also for so many Americans who do not have the sort of bargaining power that unions provide.
While it is clear that McAdam is no big fan of Senator Sanders, his condemnation is bound to have unintended results as supporters of the candidate view the attack by a rich CEO as more proof that Sanders is on the right track.
Maybe Mr. McAdam’s time would be better spent figuring out how to negotiate a cease-fire between the unions that represent their employees to bring an end to these brand-damaging strikes rather than wasting his time posting a whiny hit-piece onto an irrelevant website (LinkedIn, really?!).
